Since we started writing our blog, I have met some truly wonderful friends on Twitter. I have joined in monthly Picture Book Chats as part ...

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

A Wee Gem of a Book

Wednesday, January 13, 2016
BookBairn Blog
2 Comments

Since we started writing our blog, I have met some truly wonderful friends on Twitter. I have joined in monthly Picture Book Chats as part of #pbnatter and helped to set up @KidLitReaders for like-minded readers with two lovely librarian literary luminaries who have given me oodles of advice, confidence and support as I started the somewhat daunting venture of putting my voice out there for all to read. Thank you @BookMonsterAlly and @bookloverjo .The lovely Jo sent us a copy of a little gem of a book several months ago that her beautiful bookbairns are too mature readers to enjoy. Thank you again Jo!'A Little Owl Called Hooty' by Diana C. Vickery and illustrated by Danny Deeptown is part of the Swankpants series of books featuring some of our favourite woodland creatures and two benevolent cats, Swankypants and Chatterbox. Hooty is a baby owl who has watched all his brothers and sisters leave the nest and despite his hunger he struggles to leave his branch. He is afraid of heights. Not much use for a hungry little owl. Swankypants and Chatterbox look on, trying to encourage Hooty to find the courage to overcome his fear. True friends, they wait patiently and seek the support of a wise old barn owl who gives Hooty the support he needs. What a lovely story of friendship, love and conquering one's fears. I like to think that the old barn owl might even be Plop, the owl who was afraid of the dark, who needed the support of his friends to overcome his crippling fear that also prevent him from leaving his branch to go hunting. Wouldn't that be just magical?!This book is the perfect size for small hands with twelve pages packed with a rhythmical and rhyming story that will captivate many readers. So many board books are physically to large or heavy for BookBairn to handle on her own but this one 'fits just right'. The illustrations are beautiful and filled with detail allowing older readers to count the numerous butterflies fluttering across every page. The colour-palette is limited to autumnal tones making it a piece of artwork worthy of the magical story. Hooty's story would also be a great read for emergent-readers to read themselves with enough details to sustain their more sophisticated reading needs. You can see from the pictures below that BookBairn loves this book, and despite it taking us a few months to blog about, it is a much-valued book in her ever-growing library!

Thank you to my very own 'Swankypants' and 'Chatterbox', Jo and Ally (or Ally and Jo, not sure which of you is more of a Swankypants or Chatterbox) for encouraging me to fly off my branch.

Happy Reading, Mummy and BookBairn xx

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2 comments:

A wee gem of a BookBairn and her Mummy is not too bad either. She has a lovely way with words. The spoken word has always come fast and easy (believe me, I know) and now the written word is coming the same way. Great to see. xxx

Welcome to BookBairn! We love reading fabulous books and we enjoy sharing our favourites here on our blog. BookBairn is a huge fan of creative and inspiring picture books, and The Wee Page Turner enjoys a tasty and sturdy board book. We also share some of our baby and toddler lifestyle favourites. Hope you enjoy our recommendations.

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